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Epilogue
Allen
Ten Years Later
The house is quiet. I’m getting home late tonight. There was a little excitement at the club and I needed to see to things while the cops came and arrested the men who were fighting outside. It doesn’t happen a lot, but anywhere there’s drinking involved there’s usually an asshole with a mouth that annoys the wrong person.
I lock the door, securing the small bar at the top so it can’t be opened. Our youngest daughter, Arabella, has just recently learned how to unlock doors. I had these installed so we didn’t wake up and find her outside playing on the swing set some morning… or worse, at the neighbor’s house playing with their little boy Tyler. I have a feeling that Arabella is going to make me gray headed way before my time.
In the ten years that Jessie and I have been married life has become a beautiful dream that I never want to wake up from.
Jessie’s shop has become the “it” store in Miami and I’m proud of the success she’s made. We bought a nice quiet house in a good neighborhood that’s close to work, but still out of the city itself, so our kids have room to play. We have three children: Roan, Graham, and Arabella, and each one is as different as the day is long. Roan is the quiet, thoughtful one. I see a lot of myself in him; it’s hard for me to believe that he turns nine tomorrow. Graham is a jokester, constantly in trouble at school, and he’s just seven. I have a feeling he’s going to keep me on my toes. Then there’s Arabella, our precious daughter that looks so much like her mother it takes my breath away. She’s going to keep me running as much as Graham. The only difference is she’s way too pretty and I’ll have to worry about the boys that are chasing her too.
I take my time to check on each of my children before I finally make my way to the master bedroom. The bedside lamp is burning on my side of the bed, just like always. Jessie makes sure she keeps that on for me and it never fails to make me smile. I get undressed quickly and climb into bed and I barely have time to pull the cover up before Jessie turns to me. Her warm body wraps around me and the heat seeps into me. I hold her close, breathing her in as my heart pounds in my chest.
There was a time in my life when I prayed for death. I did everything I could to make it happen, because I couldn’t end it myself. I thought I was too weak, but now I know.
It’s not weak to live, to survive. That’s the hardest thing to do, the biggest challenge. But I owe Roman everything. He helped me find myself again and in doing that, I was able to find Jessie.
The other half of my soul.
I fought a war and somehow I survived. I did that to get to the other side, and life here… Life here is sweet. The sweetest there ever was.
“I love you, Allen,” Jessie whispers, kissing my shoulder. Her voice is thick with sleepiness.
I reach down and kiss her on the head and squeeze her.
“I love you too, Mouse,” I murmur.
I let my hand drift down to hold my wife’s stomach and I can feel my little girl kick against my palm. This will be our last child. I want time to enjoy our lives together and our grandchildren when we get older, but I also want time with Jessie. I want us to be like that couple we met on our honeymoon. A house full of children and grandchildren, but still so in love with each other that we spend each day together as if it were a precious gift.
“Quit worrying. Our little miracle will be here before you know it,” she whispers, putting her hand on top of mine.
She’s right. She reminds me of that every day. She takes time to count every miracle we’ve been given, and we have a lot of them.
“When did you know miracles existed, Mouse?”
“I didn’t, Allen,” she answers, leaning up to look at me, her eyes wide open now and staring at me with so much emotion they glow. “I had no idea,” she says. “Not until I saw you.”
My eyes close as I take my wife’s mouth and kiss her with all the love I have in my heart.
